Translation

Concerning: Article about the Twelve Tribes: “Four children stay with the foster families” in the FLZ from 16 June 2015: Children without parents

“I do not want to be misunderstood as someone promoting beating children but the article about the children of “Twelve Tribes” did shock me. The justice refers to the law of “banning violence from child rearing” and the right of the child to a “violent-free child rearing”. Obviously for the justice it is a “violent-free” measure to destroy families. This is a pretty perverse interpretation of the term “violence”. The parents must now live without their children, according to the article.

“Worse still is that the children now have to live without their parents. For children it is probably the greatest catastrophe of their life and a traumatization that they will probably never get rid off anymore. And that for reasons of “the child’s welfare”. Unbelievable.

“At least one should consider that the famous “discipline with rods” actually is being promoted in the Bible and that not only in one place. Consequently, the Bible would have to be forbidden as a writing to incite the masses.”

Ulrich Mayr, Ansbach

(Letter to the editor from “Frankischen Landeszeitung Ansbach”)

For the concerned children the situation concretely looks like this:

The first child of a young couple, a one-and-a-half year old boy, was taken almost two years ago from his parents even though there was no indication at all that they ever disciplined him. The court withdrew custody from the parents permanently only based on their religious conviction!

Their “Open Letter to the Judge at the Family Court of Ansbach” is translated at the post, “A Young Family in Court.”

Two twin girls cannot live anymore with their parents even though also with them there was no indication of an endangerment. There are only apprehensions that the parents will discipline them in the future because they believe in the Bible.

Since almost two years the children wish to return back to their parents. Both set of parents have sent in the meanwhile complaints at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe and hope for a favorable decision.